Juny The Butterfly Boy: A Story of Loss and Love - Paperback

Wilkey, Maryann: - The daughter of a sharecropper and domestic worker, Dr. MaryAnn Wilkey is grateful for her God-given talents. A voracious reader and poet, MaryAnn's love for writing has led to several published poems including a most recent one celebrating the life of her late son and only child, Robert, entitled Dissonant Consonance. It describes the ongoing battle between love and grief. She believes grief never wins because loving memories hold the power to heal after such a tragic, life-changing event. She also authored a series of board games centered on heroes and heroines in Black History.In addition to writing, MaryAnn spends her time virtually tutoring children across the country who struggle to read. A reading specialist, she received her M. Ed. at University of Massachusetts-Boston. She earned a Ph.D. at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Inspired by her son's death to become a "wounded healer", she presently seeks certification as a Grief Educator from the American Institute of Healthcare Professionals, volunteers in the Pastoral Care Division at Celebration Hospital in Orlando, and recently launched a grief support group at her church. She thanks The Compassionate Friends, a national organization serving bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings, for inspiring her to find meaning in her son's death by writing Juny the Butterfly Boy: A Story of Loss and Love. She lives in Kissimmee, Florida, with her rock of a husband, Rev. Benny Wilkey.